Coolers, PH problem, FloraNova, Cloudy smelly water, running a test

Recently I've had some problems with rising PH. Although another member clued me in that I had to add nutes to stabilize the PH. This happened when mixing a new batch. But I've also had the PH problems 24 - 48 hours after mixing the nutes into the water.

At first I thought this had something to do with a chemical coating on the coolers, but after washing the coolers, it has happened again with only one of the coolers. This time I noticed another problem, the water was very cloudy, the nutes had seperated from the water and stuck to the sides of the cooler and bottom side of the lid. The PH rose to 7.8, and no amount of PH down would help. Also the water smelled.

So I did a search on RIU, and found that there is a common trend. Do a search for "cloudy water", but search in title only. You will find that the common trend is FloraNova.

So I plan to run a test. I have two other coolers that this happened to approximately 48 hours ago. After cleaning, both of those coolers are stable, and running fine. I have a cooler that is unused, and has been washed. Right now I have plain old water and 5 ml per gallon of H2O2 bubbling to get rid of the chlorine and kill anything in the water. I plan to run this cooler identical to the other two, but with GH MaxiGro instead of the FloraNova. I'll give it 72 hours. If the water turns in this cooler, then FloraNova is innocent. If the water stays clean in this cooler, and the water in the other two coolers turns bad, FloraNova would be the problem.

Has anyone else had this problem with FloraNova?

Any ideas?

I'm trying to get a better understanding of PH. If temps go up, does PH also go up, or does it go down?

Wow, that's fucked up !
Dr E, just run GH FloraMicro and FloraBloom. And they're way cheaper than FloraNova.
It's been around for 30yrs and the formula hasn't changed.
Can't fix what aint broke. Ya feel me.
Look forward to the test results.

When my temps went up, so did my ph. That's just me.

I was at the Hydro store yesterday talking to the guy about your issues. He said he had seen the same problem with those that don't properly clean their hydrotron rocks. He suggested soaking the Hydrotron after rinsing under tap for awhile to remove dust. Soak in H2O2 solution with water, then PH the water down to 5.0 and let it soak in a new batch. Let it soak over night then use the hydrotron.

I personally rinsed all my hydrotron rocks but still see PH rise after initially mixing nutes and PH down to 5.8 this morning I woke up and its 6.5. Added PH down to get back to 5.8 also added another frozen water bottle to get nute temps in mid 60's. I usually have to check PH after mixing nutes after about 12 hours they'll usually stabilize for a few days before slowly rising again.

The silting of the hydrotron could be your issue at least that's what the hydro store guy said after reading & doing all his research he said he was having the same issues.

Weedler said:

I was at the Hydro store yesterday talking to the guy about your issues. He said he had seen the same problem with those that don't properly clean their hydrotron rocks. He suggested soaking the Hydrotron after rinsing under tap for awhile to remove dust. Soak in H2O2 solution with water, then PH the water down to 5.0 and let it soak in a new batch. Let it soak over night then use the hydrotron.

I personally rinsed all my hydrotron rocks but still see PH rise after initially mixing nutes and PH down to 5.8 this morning I woke up and its 6.5. Added PH down to get back to 5.8 also added another frozen water bottle to get nute temps in mid 60's. I usually have to check PH after mixing nutes after about 12 hours they'll usually stabilize for a few days before slowly rising again.

The silting of the hydrotron could be your issue at least that's what the hydro store guy said after reading & doing all his research he said he was having the same issues.

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I rinsed my the hell out of my hydroton for about 30 min then I soaked it in PH water for 30 min .. Never had a PH problem in my res .. Maybe its something else .

I haven't had the problems he's mentioned either and I just rinsed under tap. I didn't let them soak in PH water maybe try that on my new girls ready for germinating

Weedler said:

I haven't had the problems he's mentioned either and I just rinsed under tap. I didn't let them soak in PH water maybe try that on my new girls ready for germinating

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You dont need to dude. The hydro store guy told me the same thing just rinse the shit out of them. If you want to be sure you did a good rinse job use a 5 galloon white bucket and keep rinsing until they leave no red clay at the bottom of the bucket. Flo told me he drilled some holes in the bottom of a old tote or bucket and just rinse away .. a good 15 minute rinse should be enough ...

Weedler said:

I was at the Hydro store yesterday talking to the guy about your issues. He said he had seen the same problem with those that don't properly clean their hydrotron rocks.

Click to expand...

I don't use Hydroton, only Neoprene inserts. The roots hang down in the air. But thanks for asking around for me.

The only thing noticeable is that the cooler with the GH MaxiGro has a stable PH of 5.8 - 5.9. The two coolers with the FloraNova Gro has a PH that slowly climbs to between 6.2 - 6.5. However the water in those coolers is still brown, but clear. I'm also about to put a fourth cooler to use with MaxiGro nutes.



The foil and duct tape is temporary, until I get off my ass and get some aluminum tape.

Cool.
FloraNova may be the prob then, huh.

Well...last night I dropped the PH of the two FloraNova coolers back down to the proper range. This morning the MaxiGro cooler went up to 6.0 from 5.9 last night, and the FloraNova coolers went up to 6.4 and 6.5 from 5.9. So I think I either got a bad batch of FloraNova (they were samples anyway) or FloraNova sucks. Either way...I'll probably use up the MaxiGro for this grow, then switch to the one's you recommended.

No doubt.
Toss that FlorNova shit for now and stick to the Maxi.
It's time to get your plants going so you can have some Holiday/New Year's dank ! lol

I heard that.
I've been worried that I won't have any in time.

I know we pretty much already figured it out, but just thought I'd mention that one of the other FloraNova coolers went bad, cloudy, smelly, and PH that rises out of control.

Start 12/12 by October 1st, harvest December 9th at Day 70 (if 10 week grow) and you'll be smoking dried and cured buds come Christmas Eve !! lmao
Sooner if it's an 8 or 9 week grow !

Well...I was hoping this thread would be dead due to solving the mystery by now. I had thought this was a problem with FloraNova, but not so. I can't say that FloraNova did not introduce the problem, but I also can't say that it did.

I tend to mix a little tap water with my distilled water, that way I already have a PH buffer. But not to much of a buffer, this is why I only use between 1/2 to 1 whole gallon of tap, for every 5 gallon res. Amount is determined by ppm. Anything above 200 ppm is mixed at a ratio of 1 to 4. But if the ppm exceeds 400, I mix it at 1 to 9; hence the reason for the 1/2 gallon. If ph is not stable, I might take 1/4 gallon out, and replace with tap, in order to get a more stable ph. The reason for this is that I like to use only one thing at a time, PH UP, or PH Down, but not both at the same time. Anyway...chances are that the tap water introduced whatever infection I have. That's right, only thing that is left is either something that is organic, and growing or dying, and some chemical that is in the tap water. I remember reading somewhere that if something is growing that

A. looks like snot, but thick. It loves to grow on airstones
B. H2O2 doesn't touch it
C. Physan 20 won't touch it.


= a bacterial infection and it creates a bacterial bloom that will kill the fuck out of your plants, and cause ph to rise. I have this shit on my airstones. I thought that the Physan 20 had killed it. I got new airstones and everything. Still there. So to make a long ass story shorter, I got Subculture-B, and Hydrozyme. Since this problem is apparently rare, anyone wanna take bets?

Can't help you bro, but very likely indeed.
Sorry !
That's why choose R/O water.
I don't even drink my tap water, so I sure as hell and feeding my girls tap water PLUS I spent good money on my beans.

Some people swear by tap water being OK, even good. I'm testing some Subculture-B in the water that went cloudy, we'll see if it balances out. If not, then I'm probably going back to soil until someone figures out what the problem is, or I run across the answer.

I did buy a bottle of Amquel Plus for my tap, because it contains Chloramine, if I ever really need to use it.
Tap ppm = 290